PRIVATE EQUITY-OWNED FIRMS DOMINATE PRISON AND DETENTION SERVICES

The fact sheet highlights the dominance of private equity-owned firms in providing essential services—such as telecommunications, healthcare, and commissary—to the U.S. carceral system. It specifically notes that the scaling up of immigration detention has increased business for these firms, listing several private equity owners and the specific facilities they serve, including ICE processing centers.

• Private equity-owned firms providing services like phone, commissary, medical, and bail bonds are more ubiquitous than publicly-traded prison operators, serving thousands of facilities across the United States.
• The Trump administration's increase in immigrant detention has directly benefited private equity owners and the contractors they own.
• Specific private equity-owned firms serve high-profile immigrant detention sites, such as the Adelanto ICE Processing Center in California, which utilizes services from Wellpath and Keefe Group (both owned by H.I.G. Capital).
• Major private equity-owned service providers have extensive reach: Securus (Platinum Equity) serves over 1.2 million inmates across more than 3,400 agencies in North America, and Global Tel Link (American Securities) serves 1.8 million inmates in 50 states, D.C., and Puerto Rico.

APA

Baker, J. (2018). PRIVATE EQUITY-OWNED FIRMS DOMINATE PRISON AND DETENTION SERVICES. Private Equity Stakeholder Project. https://pestakeholder.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/PE-Incarceration-Detention-PESP-122018.pdf

Chicago

Baker, Jim. PRIVATE EQUITY-OWNED FIRMS DOMINATE PRISON AND DETENTION SERVICES. Private Equity Stakeholder Project, 2018. https://pestakeholder.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/PE-Incarceration-Detention-PESP-122018.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Baker |first1=Jim |title=PRIVATE EQUITY-OWNED FIRMS DOMINATE PRISON AND DETENTION SERVICES |publisher=Private Equity Stakeholder Project |date=December 2018 |url=https://pestakeholder.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/PE-Incarceration-Detention-PESP-122018.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{baker2018private, author = {Baker, Jim}, title = {{PRIVATE EQUITY-OWNED FIRMS DOMINATE PRISON AND DETENTION SERVICES}}, institution = {Private Equity Stakeholder Project}, year = {2018}, month = dec, url = {https://pestakeholder.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/PE-Incarceration-Detention-PESP-122018.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }